Yeargin gears up for state

Crescent senior wants to win elusive championship

IVA - Long before Crescent’s B.J. Yeargin was a two-time region champion and four-time state qualifier, he was a sophomore trying to learn the ropes and climb the ladder in Anderson County.

One of his biggest failures was captured for all to see. After being pinned by Westside’s Michael Timms in the Anderson County Invitational, Yeargin had to relive being in that precarious position all over again through a photo in the next day’s newspaper.

It’s something he carried with him over the next two years.

“I looked at it and it just made me mad to lose. I knew I had to learn from my mistakes,” Yeargin said.

Now a Class 2A/A Upper State champion at 170 pounds, Yeargin will be chasing his first state championship in his last run as a senior starting Friday at the SCHSL individual championships at the Anderson Civic Center.

After three seasons of being an underdog, Yeargin is the top-ranked 170-pounder in the classification and is coming off a memorable senior season. In addition to picking up the 100th win of his career, he and Nick Ashley, the Upper State champion at 145 pounds, led Crescent to a third-place finish in the state duals.

Tigers coach Anthony Martin said Yeargin has come a long way since he was a 145-pound freshman wrestling against Abbeville when Martin was coaching the Panthers. Yeargin started out with a lot of athletic ability and later became stronger, eventually combining the two attributes.

“I had to teach him more offensive and defensive moves. He’s finally putting the whole package together,” Martin said.

As far as state goes, though, Yeargin has learned it’s a completely different atmosphere from the regular season.

“At state you get all mixtures and types,” Martin said. “You get people that do weird things — eye-gouging, grab your nose — and if you’re not used to it in 2A wrestling, you’re going to get beat. If he’s stays wrestling, he’s good.”

In the second round last year, Yeargin was the victim of an eye gouge and wrestled angry the rest of the time. Martin said he was never the same.

To prevent history from repeating itself, Martin has brought in four past Upper State champs from Crescent and Abbeville, as well as numerous other alumni to give Yeargin a taste of what he’ll be dealing with.

“I keep throwing them on there,” Martin said. “I get on top of him and pound on him. I’m bringing all my resources in on that one kid trying to get him used to it.”

That’s where the preparation ends.

Asked if he knew anything about his first-round opponent, Yeargin paused for a moment.

“He’s from Whale Branch,” Yeargin answered.

Mark Rivers, a senior who is making his state debut as the No. 4 seed from the Lower State, is in fact from Whale Branch. Yeargin said he doesn’t need to know any more than that.

“I need to worry about all of them because they’re all state qualifiers,” Yeargin said of his competition. “But I need to worry more about myself than them. I need to be aggressive when I have to, and I need to be defensive when I have to. I think if I can just wrestle the way I do I can be successful.”

Should he make it to the top of the podium Saturday, he hopes to see plenty of camera flashes capturing the moment.